Israel killed 11 Palestinians in a raid in the West Bank on Wednesday. On Thursday, rockets were fired from Gaza towards Israel, to which Israel responded with airstrikes.
The strongest violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories in several years is accelerating.
Yesterday, Wednesday, Israeli security forces raided the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. 11 Palestinians were killed. In addition, more than a hundred people were injured, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced.
It was the deadliest Israeli raid in the West Bank since 2005.
The West Bank refers to the area on the west bank of the Jordan River in historical Palestine. Israel occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War. There is limited Palestinian self-government in the area, but Israel has been expanding its own settlements in the West Bank for a long time.
Israel justified its most recent raid as an effort to find members of armed groups in the city. According to Israel, their own forces came under fire, but there were no casualties.
The Islamic Jihad group said two of their leaders were killed in the raid. Islamic Jihad is an extremist group striving for the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state.
A 14-year-old boy and a 72-year-old man also died in the raid, the Palestinian Authority said.
The Palestinian Authority described the Nablus raid as a “mass murder” and asked for “international protection for the people”, the news agency AFP reports.
Rockets were fired from Gaza – Israel responded with its own strikes
After the raid, six rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip on Thursday night. No people were killed or injured in the attack.
The Gaza Strip is a Palestinian territory on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Israel has blockaded the Gaza Strip since 2007. Before this, Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
Islamic Jihad took responsibility for firing rockets at Israel, the news agency AFP says. According to the group, the rockets were revenge for the events in Nablus.
Israel responded to the rocket fire with several air strikes on Gaza on Thursday morning. According to Israel, the attacks were aimed at a weapons factory and a military camp. There is no information about the details of the attack and the possible victims so far.
Violence has been increasing for a long time
Violence between Israel and the Palestinians began to escalate last year. At the end of 2022, a right-wing government led by a prime minister came to power in Israel Benjamin Netanyahu.
There are several ultra-nationalist ministers in the government, such as the Minister of Security Itamar Ben-Gvirwho has repeated many times that he wants to expand Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories.
Since the beginning of the year, 59 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks. Among the dead are both members of armed groups and civilians.
Today, Thursday, several shops and schools are closed in the West Bank and Gaza as Palestinian groups urged residents to protest the Nablus raid.
– This is a day of mourning and a strike. How could we work or eat or drink when our brothers in Nablus are being killed? A resident of the city of Hebron in the West Bank Nafez Sider commented on the strike to the news agency Reuters.
Secretary General of the UN António Guterres yesterday called for immediate work to prevent the situation from escalating.
– The situation in the occupied Palestinian territory has been a hotbed for years, Guterres said.
Source: AFP
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